Release Parties

So I'm curious, and the blog's been kinda quiet, what did everyone do for the book 6 release?

I was lucky enough to live close to where Mugglenet held that huge party they threw. We spent all day there, admiring the decor, enjoying the entertainment, running away from Dementors (if you paid $2 you could have a friend thrown in Azkaban), pretty much confirming that we are and always will be dorks.

I made a shirt too. On the front is Lucius, looking hot. On the back it said Evil is so SEXY!

I knit myself a scarf, but it was too hot, so it ended up a hip-sash.
(Pardon the lack of lipstick and the shiny skin, this was taken just before they started handing out the books at midnight)

So what did you all do?

Order of the Phoenix Book review

Wow, I am still on target. That is so impressive. Anyways just finished reading the book, now trying to listen to it on tape as I missed some key points.

1. My sister said that the necklace Dumbledore and Harry were looking for in Half-Blood was already found at Sirius house. Where is that reference? And has anyone else made that connection yet?
2. Umbridge is really on the Death-eaters side.
3. And aren't Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle's mom's tired of finding their kids covered in hexes on the train? (The dad's are in Azkaban- since Harry pointed them out)

Too tired to think of anymore.

Dumbledore socks

I finished these socks just before Mother's Day. Just took a long time to post the pic. The two socks don't quite match. There is a slight pattern that isn't visible in the pic. And they are made of acrylic, I won't use acrylic to make socks. To hard and rough. I call them Dumbledore socks because in Book one Sorcerers Stone, Dumbledore said that the one thing he wanted the most was socks.

Now onto my shawl.

Finally! A Finished Project!

I've finally finished my Harry Potter house scarf. It took ages (ten months) and nearly killed me (or at least the fringing did). If you'd like to see it, click here. I'm sorry, I'm too tired to upload pics here, Blogger's been giving me fits today.
But it's lovely, what with being a co-host and all, to finally have something to contribute. For a while, it was in question.
I love seeing all the progress! You're a great group to Knit-a-long with! And only 60 days (SIXTY DAYS!) to the book. HAHAHA.
Sorry. The fringe did drive me a little mad.

Part 3 - Dark Lords Have Feelings Too

When we last left the Dark Lord, woolen and stranded in the muggle world without a wand, he had found a sympathetic ear in the muggle woman whose house his spell had transported him to.
“So that's my whole sad story. The things you didn't get a chance to hear in those one-sided books.”

“You poor, poor man. I guess I didn't imagine that there could be a different side. I mean... you seemed like such a...”
“A villain? The bad guy? It's so easy for people to give someone that label. But it's so... so hard to prove them wrong.”

“But there's one thing you haven't gone into. That night. When you attacked the Potters. Why? Having talked to you I just can't even imagine you doing that. But you... you killed them.”

“There were circumstances. Very difficult circumstances. I went there as a favor to someone else. There was a question of... well... it's embarrassing, but I see that keeping this secret will only make things worse. I went there for Severus Snape. He and Lily... there had been an indiscretion on both their parts. And with Harry's dark hair... but when I tried to talk to Lily James flew into one of his rages. He was like a wild thing. We fought and things went too far.”

“But wait, what about the prophecy? And honestly, Lily and Snape? You can't expect me to believe...”
“You're talking to a wizard made of yarn, but you won't believe that a woman and a man could find themselves in a situation where things got out of hand?”

“Well... ok that's true. But you killed her! And tried to kill Harry!”

“A horrible accident. And don't you think I was punished? I'm still being punished. I'm made of wool for heaven's sake! But no one will let me make amends. No one will give me a chance to prove that I'm a good man. It's been that way from the beginning. A few odd occurrences at the orphanage and I'm the bad kid, the weird kid, the one who's a little off. And now these books. If you ask me... the woman writing these lies in the real villain. Corrupting children with one-sided views of good and evil.”

“You're right. You're so right.”

“But without my wand it doesn't matter. I'm stuck in this form. Trapped."

"And if you had your wand? What then?"

"To be honest... I've always fancied opening a flower shop."


Coming Soon: Part 4 - A New Man

I have not blogged much here as I have been busy juggling work, re-reading all the books and knitting HP theme stuff.

Here is my latest cast off:

I knitted them for my darling who is not a Harry Potter fan, but I snuck these in under her very nose.... (evil laugh). There are from the Six Sock KAL and they are Susan Lawrence's Horcrux socks. The cuff is designed to be Harry's lightning bolts. You can see that pattern real good on her socks.

There are two versions of this pattern. The first one was originally wrote for worsted weight yarn and posted on I am Knitting As Fast As I Can. It is a freebie pattern, just go to her site and look in the sidebar under Free Patterns.

Then Susan revised it in fingering yarn for this quarter's Six Sock KAL.

This is my fourth pair of socks, so they are very easy to follow the pattern and make. I am casting on for my own pair in traditional Gryfindor colors. I am also making and will be blogging here and my own blog As I Knit about making Molly's COS movie sweater with the crocheted sleeves. The pattern is in Charmed Knits. There are lots of movie/books events this summer and I need to have the proper wizard attire. Would not want anyone to think I was a Muggle, would I?

Scarlett

Have A Slytherin Button

Giddiness

I saw the trailer today on the big screen....oh_my_God!! I poked my husband, "See, see THIS is why I am so excited about the movie coming out." He's been teasing me lately..."Everything reminds you of Harry Potter."

Sure I might giggle suddenly and spout off the number of days till the movie or book comes out--still no reason to think me odd. Right?

I've been working on my next Harry Potter contest entry---mostly done...sorta. I've been lured away by the siren known as Clapotis (found a super affordable/cooler sub. for the Lion and Lamb).

Part 3...

Will hopefully be up by the end of this week. I've been fighting a fairly nasty sinus infection and haven't felt up to staging the next series of photos. But here's a little teaser...

Still Around...

Hello All,

My sincerest apologies for fall off the face of the earth these last few months. Anyone who knows me will know that it was with good reason. But I just wanted to say hi, and let you know that I have been reading since finals ended AND have been making a pair of quill lace socks from Knitty, but with a colourway I dyed myself. I am very excited to show you all them. Photos to come soon. Hope you are all well and are excited as I am for this summer of Potty madness we have ahead :)

Parisa

It's done!



I used the pattern from the sidebar with a few changes. Details on my blog.

I'm not going to admit how far behind on the reading I am.

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort

As such a crucial character in the story, I’m curious as to what people think of Ralph Fiennes portrayal of Lord Voldemort in Goblet of Fire.

Personally, I don’t think they could have cast him better. I love the subtle insanity that RF added to the character. He’s calm one moment, frenzied the next, then back to calm again. I love the tones that he chose to use in the graveyard scene. He’s so condescending to Harry, so mocking and at the same time, frustrated that Harry isn’t more of a fighter. When he tells Harry to pick up his wand, the order is immediately repeated with more passion because Harry didn’t immediately rush for it.

His facial expressions are wonderful. He can go from stone faced to wild and crazy and back to utter calm without it looking overacted or ridiculous.

Perhaps my favorite added line to the movie was “After tonight, if they speak your name, they'll speak only of how you begged for death, and I, being a merciful lord... obliged.” I LOVE this line. He looks almost compassionate when he says it; it’s just a faint glimpse of that cunning, manipulative nature that we hear so much about in book 6.

So what do you guys think?

It's Magic! An F.O.!!

Whew, finally. It came out pretty cool, it's really neat. My son loves it, and now he can dress up to play Harry Potter.

No wonder Neville keeps losing his toad

Here is little Trevor. Now I know why Neville had such a hard time keeping track of his toad. I nearly lost Trevor all the while I was making him.



The pattern can be found here . (It's actually a frog pattern but I couldn't find a toad pattern.)

Dark Mark Illusion Scarf! (and pattern)

I haven't posted much here because I've been working on this scarf in 'secret' (you know, us death eaters have to keep it quiet). So quick intro: my name is Lindsay and I've been knitting for about 6 years. I made the Dark Mark bag pattern for the Goblet of Fire movie release, and I had to do something bigger and better for the Order of the Phoenix.

Yesterday I finished my Dark Mark Illusion Scarf. I basically had to freehand the chart and write it down as I went along, because the chart I made wasn't working.






**I posted the full pattern and charts here on my blog.**

Still Lurking

Hello all,

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still around. We had a really bad April around my house. Things are slowly getting back to normal, but with that said, I just finished rereading book 2 and started book 3 this morning. I think part of my problem was that book 1 was so like the movie that it was boring (since I could just watch the movie), but I hated not to read it. I think book 2 was the same, but not to the same level.

I've been spending my time finishing up some projects and not really starting anything new. I did try to cast on the Horcrux socks three separate times and could not get the gauge small enough to fit me instead of my husband (and truth be told, they were too big for him). I have every intention to retry that again today. I'm planning to make the ribbing at the top and the foot in blue and the lightning bolts (and maybe the heel and toe in gray). Ravenclaw colors, of course.

Just wanted to give y'all an update. Happy Knitting!

Donna

I have NO self control

I had been meaning to space out my reading of the six books. And I did really really well for the first two months. For this knit-along, the suggestion was that we read the first three books during February and March, and then one book a month for April through June.

But I couldn't do it!

I tried reading really slow. I really did! But I'm done with all six books and now I'm in the dumps because I can't hardly wait until Book 7 comes out. Sigh...

House elf thoughts

Just some thoughts on House elves.

1. Hermione is so fond of saying that no one can apparate inside of Hogwart's. How do the house elves do it?
2. How do House elves propogate?

I am a slow knitter- been knitting house elf slippers for almost 2 weeks now. Haven't started OtP yet as the book on tape is checked out and I am #2 on the wait list.

Bad Ravenclaw...no cookie for me.

But today the book has finally arrived. And I can honestly say that I am soooo glad that I ordered it. There are quite a few patterns in there that I would knit up. I had already started my Ravenclaw scarf and hat before the book arrived. So see I have been knitting. Just not posting here so much. Now I just have to wait patiently for book 7 to come out.

Yule Ball Wear

The well dressed Ravenclaw boy can already wear the Ravenclaw tie to the Yule Ball. But what about the well dressed Hogwarts girls?

For their dancing outfits I present:

The Gryffindor Shrug


The Slytherin T-back Top



The Hufflepuff Sneak-a-peek Tank





Project Details:
Yarn: Handspun
The yarn for all these tops is my own handspun. I purchased the fiber on February 25, 2007. These wonderful blends are from Crosspatch Creations. The Gryffindor Shrug is the colorway Rhiannon's Fire. The Slytherin T-back is the colorway Shadow Grove. And the Hufflepuff Tank is the colorway Black Hills Gold. I spun the yarn during March and April.

Patterns:
Gryffindor Shrug: Fiber Trends Shoulder Shrug
Slytherin T-back: Waikiki T-strap Top from Crystal Palace
Hufflepuff Tank: Sneak-a-peek Tank from Interweave Press Subscriber only section

Start Date: Feb. 25, 2007 because that's when I came home with all the fiber
Finish Dates:
Gryffindor Shrug - April 5, 2007
Slytherin T-back - April 26, 2007
Hufflepuff Tank - May 3, 2007

I'm keeping track of all my HP KAL projects here.

Socks, Socks and Socks

Ravensclaw set up to knit on Saturday during the Route 66 Fun Run. Will be size 11 mens.

Slytherin socks almost completed again to finish during the fun run. Because of the hot rods and needing to wave to viewers I can't cast on well in the car. So, pre-set up any socks I will be doing during the trip.

MUGGLES ALERT: Route 66 Fun Run from Seligman to Kingman to Oatman Arizona to see the muggle car go here 1960 Ford Starliner

Karen A.
Hufflepuff House

It Is Here

My CHARMED KNITS book is here!!!!!!

Dance For Joy

Yes, I know. I've been a horrible lurker and I haven't done any knitting. Bad Ami. I do have really good excuses though that I won't go into here. Suffice it to say, if you're really that interested, you can read my blog. So why the funny dance? I just found out that my copy of Charmed Knits is on it's way! Yay! It will be here sometime next week. I was too cheap to pay for shipping, which is the only reason it didn't arrive on it's release date instead of being shipped on said date. However, I'm still really super excited so this has turned out to be a good day after all. :D

Griffindor Dress Socks Completed

Again done with Opal Uni sock yarn, and two acrylic yarns size 11 mens with 9" of ribbing (the yellow is the same used in the Hufflepuff Socks). The Hufflepuff socks are residing in Seattle WA. the Griffindor socks will be in Maine soon, and the Syltherin socks will be in San Francisco.
Started the Syltherin socks Opal Uni sock yarn, Lorna Lace Shephard sock yarn in sage, and pewter already finished one and on the second sock will post picture later. These are made size 10 mens (for son-in-law).
Grandson is a size 11 mens sock so he will get the Ravensclaw socks.
have a great week
Karen A

Hogwarts House Afghan

I started my House Afghan in February(at least the idea started then). I plan on making squares using all of the house colors and then doing something fun for the border which will hopefully incorporate the house names(I'll see what I'm up for once all the squares are done).

Over the weekend I finished my Hufflepuff squares and wanted to share, so here they are:
All Sevens

If you'd like to see the whole story, look here.